Tenants threatening to block completion on our property purchase...

GDB2222

pinkshoes wrote: »

I also think your solicitor has been very weak, and given you very poor advice. One month notice?!? The solicitor really should have known that the minimum is 2 months from a rent date!!

I would have insisted at the very least that the vendor pay all out of pocket expenses if you reach the end of your mortgage term. Even better, I would have insisted on him paying a 10% penalty!

Personally I wouldn't try and extend the mortgage. I'd just tell the vendor that if you don't have vacant possession by <date> (when mortgage expires), you will withdraw from the sale, and he will be liable for a new mortgage fee.

I'd also demand to see a copy of the S21 to check it's been issued properly, along with the tenancy agreement.

for tenants holding over on an AST, the notice they are required to give is one month.

There is no point telling the OP what should have been in the contract. you have no way of knowing what the vendor would have agreed to.

Likewise, you can ask to see the section 21 notice that the landlord has served on his tenant, but there is no way of enforcing that. If

bf206

GDB2222 wrote: »

for tenants holding over on an AST, the notice they are required to give is one month.

There is no point telling the OP what should have been in the contract. you have no way of knowing what the vendor would have agreed to.

Likewise, you can ask to see the section 21 notice that the landlord has served on his tenant, but there is no way of enforcing that. If

Yes, to be honest the contract negotiation itself was very difficult and this business about five days notice if vacant possession wasn't available was thrown in literally at the eleventh hour. It did make us, and our solicitor, wary at the time but it was either that or we pulled out then.

I'm fairly certain (who knows really) that if we hadn't exchanged when we had, the vendor would have put the place back on the market. So, from that point of view, we took a risk and knew it. As you can all see, this vendor/landlord seems to be a piece of work so even when we exchanged, we were cautious.

Having said that I suppose, naively, for the various reasons I've given here, we thought the chance of the tenants doing what they're doing was pretty slim. But we've never bought before, and don't have the accumulated wisdom of all those here so we'll learn!